Digital Testimonios and Reimagining Public History

Abstract

This article explores the practice of integrating digital testimonios—multimedia storytelling—into higher education courses, as well as university and community-based archives. I argue that digital testimonios, as a methodology practiced through the use of everyday phone-editing technology, provides Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) students, particularly non- film majors, with the opportunity to develop storytelling voices, thereby contributing their experiences to the cultural wealth and knowledge production of our society. This study highlights the powerful possibilities of digital testimonio projects—oral history, civic engagement, and archival work—where students themselves become change agents in the invaluable development of public history.